This post directly follows
Nelson Community Solar Garden
5 Mar, 2018
below.
Reading it first or again will provide an intro and depth.
Photos here - all taken 18 Mar, 2018 - largely are a layperson's impression of the project's construction aspects. A basically urban, Lakeside Park kinda guy - while inexperienced in carpentry, concrete-whatever and solar-power "production" - I am comfortably observant and used to thinking reasonably/logically.
With design/construction-flaws and their ramifications glaringly apparent (even) to me - Are you ready for that? Are they serious? - I must wonder at the intentions and lack of qualifications of those who conceived this thing and slapped it together: unelected decision-makers, for the community.
And Kevin Cormack, CAO, calling it all "a low-value project".
What's with that, investors? They tell you?
Following are only observations/impressions of the installation's structural integrity.
Observations (pictures) are divided into 3 groups - from the ground up. Close scrutiny of pictures will reveal diverse problems within single images: block-misalignment, gravel-flow, moisture-absorption thus/and cracks in frames.
1.
Concrete Mount-Blocks/Gravel Beds
2.
Wooden Support Frames
3.
Solar Panels
1a. Concrete Mount-Blocks
These lumbering blocks - unsecured, except by gravitational pull - are markedly out of alignment with each other. Unless they were positioned this way - unlikely - they have been moving individually, to ultimately influence the frames carrying the solar panels - the whole. Individual then collective movement - falling dominoes - is irreversible: having to lead to the project's sooner demise.
1b. Gravel Beds
Unsecured - as in blocks floating on indifferent beds of gravel so loose that smaller stones/coarser sand have been washed away downhill: these gravel beds are uncontained.
The gravel has no specific depth but is a quickie attempt to level the ground, where rock in/protrudes irregularly. A Botox job.
2. Wooden Support Frames
Untreated timber(s) consistently exposed to moisture - much rain, mist and fog from the dam - without enough time to dry-out thoroughly: will warp, crack and rot. Cracks are particularly apt to retain moisture - therefore lengthening, widening and deepening, as is the case here.
3. Solar Panels
While very sensitive, they need a gentle but firm, steadying hand. Without it they will act-up and out. They already have for some time.
Council's approval of this project followed their usual m.o. - approve the principle/ignore the detail. Leaving that to whomever.
Go have a look!
Image Credits:
Norm Yanke
iconspng
Alex Love, Nelson Hydro
alove@nelson.ca
Carmen Proctor, Consultant
cproctor@nelson.ca
Kevi Cormack, CAO
kcormack@nelson.ca
Deb Kozak, Mayor
dkozak@nelson.ca
City Council
nelsoncouncil@nelson.ca
Quite conceivably the project as is now/there - since mid-June 2017 - won't survive another 10 years.
Not to get into deep-tech here - the average local can only find bewildering - this post keeps it short, simple and reasonable, based on the images presented - not necessarily in order of chronological pro/regression.
The general lack of awareness has been nurtured at/around City Hall with an unwillingness to open all relevant data, held close to the chest by Alex Love, Nelson Hydro; Carmen Proctor, Consultant and Kevin Cormack, CAO.
The following does not go into projected or realized financial results.
Good grief ... no!
The Garden's Improbability
1.
Council approving without understanding it - or trying to;
2.
The usual Nelsonites eager to see themselves/be seen at the forefront of daring new-whatever: Where do I sign, take my money! Please!
3.
An unsuitable environment;
4.
Cost-cutting measures prompting flawed installation by an inexpert contractor: disregarding crucial engineering requirements.
Unsuitable Environment
a. Fog
Because of the dam fog is a given in the area during spring and summer. Lessening the yield of sunlight harvested in the Garden's solar panels - fog burned-off by about 11:00am.
b. Site
While not the original/only choice - this is too small. Where engineering plans stipulate a space of 6 meters between 2 rows of panels - the space here is cut by/to 3 meters. Meaning: one row casts a shadow on the next. The lower the sun - the more shadow.
Then - there's the dancing power-pole, preventing absorption wherever it dances!
The first/very-top image is from Dec 17, 2018/10:00am: with still no sun at the site, while already strong in the background.
So - all-in-all - it's not that the sun isn't trying: the choice of location and installation is just not inviting it in.
Power-yield from the Garden-as-is-where-when - here transposed into sun-hours to make it visual:
Dec '17 - 10 sun-hours
Jan '18 - 12 sun-hours
Feb '18 - 27 sun-hours
The total, while this power can only be available in received fits and starts. Yet with prior due diligence - choosing an appropriate location/installation - there could be substantially more. Even during winter months.
Installation
In a private solar-panel set-up - not far from the Garden - installed on appropriate galvanized metal-mounting and concrete sono-tubes below the frost-line - the necessary alignment faces no frost-heaving or movement such as that occurring in the Nelson Garden. It also is completely open to the sun all around, all day long.
While the Garden's solar panels should be installed by experts on metal-mounting similar to that above - below it is done by a timber-working company on wooden frames, resting on concrete mount-blocks.
These blocks are set on unsecured gravel-beds flattened with a basic hand-push plate-tamper, instead of the engineer-specified somewhat costly 1800 lb vibratory compactor.
Any misalignment of panels thus far - visually exemplified here in uneven spacing between them and at their bottoms - is due to mount-blocks settling individually, with warping of frames through that as well as moisture-saturation.
Causing pressure-and-pull on panels, their fastenings - each other - to probably have them fall off and/or explode.
There usually is no manufacturer's warranty on inexpertly installed panels.
Because of the interconnect of all construction components: there is no way to stop the move down the gravel-pit.
Only starting all over again expertly in a suitable location would do.
An overall lack of visionary depth of the project, unreasonable financial projections and the poor - mostly cost-quashed - planning and installation are certain to prevent the Nelson Community Solar Garden from producing a bountiful harvest for investors - ever.
Oh well...
Without me "belonging" to any social media: number of visitors to this post -
2723.
Credits:
http://nelsoncommunitysolargarden.blogspot.ca
iconspng
Alex Love, Nelson Hydro
alove@nelson.ca
Kevin Cormack, CAO
kcormack@nelson.ca
Deb Kozak, Mayor
dkozak@nelson.ca
City Council
nelsoncouncil@nelson.ca
